Intercultural communicative competence: A systematic review of the literature

Communicative and intercultural competence involves using language to create respectful, mutually acceptable and dignified environments, which is essential in the 21st century. In this context, the aim of this paper is to identify trends in research on intercultural communicative competence during the period 2001–2022 in the Web of Science database. To achieve this, a systematic review was carried out following the recommendations of the PRISMA statement. The main findings show that: 1) There is a discrepancy between the origin of the research sample and the country of publication of the articles; 2) most studies focus on intercultural communicative competence within the context of second language learning; and 3) a significant number of publications investigate the use of technology and telecollaboration in the development of this competence. It is concluded that the subject matter is predominantly addressed from the perspective of bilingualism, which underscores the need to broaden approaches to more fully integrate this type of competence and cultural diversity in the educational setting. Furthermore, a notable lack of studies addressing intercultural communicative competence in homoglossic contexts within higher education is identified.